THE VIEW FROM CANNES

2019

Once again, the industry descended on the Croisette for the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity to discuss a melting pot of ideas and reveal the latest opportunities for brands and agencies alike. For those of us from Fuse who were there, we had an enjoyable, enlightening and inspiring trip. This year the themes that emerged from Cannes couldn’t have been a better fit for us at Fuse, with conversation dominated by human experience, purpose and technology.

Having published Merge Sport: How technology will revolutionise sport for fans last October, it was no surprise to see a number of speakers discussing the effects technology such as AI and VR will have on consumer experiences, especially in the world of sport.

Consumer demand to experience brands has not gone unnoticed, with panellists at Cannes discussing the different ways brands can create new ways to interact

with consumers. Whether that’s developing a new sonic identity, creating a human face for your brand powered by AI or building a space for people to interact with your brand in a physical immersive experience.

Finally, purpose featured heavily throughout Cannes. Some tackled it from the view of big businesses retrofitting their offerings to make a positive change in the world, while others looked at how challenger brands are being set up with a clear purpose in mind, the products they sell are simply a by-product of achieving that purpose.

Here we have pulled together some of the inspiring and insightful sessions from the festival, along with our view on what they could mean for your business.

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FOREWORD

L O U I S E J O H N S O N , C E O, F U S E

CONTENTS

ENTERTAINMENT COMES ALIVE: ELEVATING THE FAN EXPERIENCE....................................................................................................................4-5

IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGY IS RESHAPING THE STORYTELLING EXPERIENCE .............................................................................................................10-11

HUMAN AI AND THE PERSONALISATION OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ......................................................................................................................................6-7

WHY CHANGING THE FACE OF FOOTBALL COULD CHANGE THE WORLD ...................................................................................................................12-13

GIVING THEM SOMETHING THEY CAN FEEL: MULTISENSORY BRAND EXPERIENCE .........................................................................................................8-9

THE ULTIMATE BRAND ACTIVATION FOR ‘THE UNREACHABLES’ IS ESPORTS .......................................................................................................14-15

I B M i X

fans behind the scenes insights into what’s really happening in the game, outside of what the human eye can capture. Those trends are much more engaging and give the fans far more insight into how the sport is played and why a certain team is winning or losing.

Younger audiences are not comfortable sitting back and watching sport, they are usually engaged in some kind of second screen experience. It’s important that brands and media owners figure out what engaging digital experiences they can create to bring fans even closer into the sports that they’re watching and loving. Katz described one such experience from last year’s FIFA World Cup, where Fox Sports worked with IBM iX to create a tool that allowed fans to use keywords to create personalised highlight reels from all historical archive footage of all plays, goals, kicks; every single important moment through the World Cup’s history.

In the past, when live games were filmed, the footage was put on a disc or hard drive and it would be locked there. You had to use a complex logging system to find the moment in a game that you were looking for. Now rather than being stored on a disc, that footage can make its way across the world in a matter of seconds. With the technology we have today, we now have the ability to find commonality amongst millions of terabytes of data to help producers and fans alike find the content they are looking for.

T H E V I E W F RO M F U S E

For a decade or more, social media has enabled people, businesses, governments to share content around the

world at remarkable speed. Live sports content, however, has historically been restricted by the pace the broadcaster can work at (and their desire to control the content for commercial reasons). IBM is one of several companies – along with Intel, Microsoft and several independents such as Reely.ai – that are changing this.

These organisations are not only using AI to recognise, edit and distribute live content in near real-time but they are also doing something that will have a much more dramatic effect in the long-term. They are handing control of the content to the fans.

One of the unique aspects of digital viewing, be it on social or streaming, is the interactivity of the relationship that can be created through the content. The linear broadcast of sports content is one way of viewing, but the broadcaster determines when and how you watch. Consumption of the content is reasonably passive. However, online users have the capability to both interact with the content (e.g. comment live) and adapt the content to their needs as more interactive technologies redefine the viewing experience. Social media and digital companies can maximise the rich audience data they to create an even more personalised sports content experience.

This shift will be transformational for sports as the technologies discussed above enable fans to receive content perfectly suited to them, eventually being able to directly influence that content, whether that’s picking a particular camera angle or changing the commentary. Think Spotify for sport!

“For any of you that have sat in a sporting event, whether in a stadium or you’re watching a golf tournament, and somebody comes and plays that shot and they win that moment, the emotional connection you get to these events in quite incredible.” Matt Candy, GM and Global Leader at IBM iX, opened the session with a key point about the importance of experiences to fans. And brands agree, with 64% of organisations saying that they realise they must centre everything they do around experience in order to drive competitive differentiation.

One example of creating an even more engaging experience with sports that goes beyond watching a match live can be seen at this years’ Wimbledon, where IBM iX will be auto-curating highlight reels. It will take every match of the game, ingest it and build an excitement index by looking at player gestures and listening to crowd noise. AI will then use this data to generate automatic highlight reels available to fans within 15 minutes of the match.

Looking at other ways of extending the fan experience beyond the live game, Fox Sports’ Head of Digital, David Katz, believes that in ten years, we won’t refer to digital as a separate element of sports, it will become an integral part of the ecosystem of sports content. It’s therefore very important that we use data and analytics to really inform the storytellers that bring these games into your living room. We need to find the information that gives

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ENTERTAINMENT COMES ALIVE: ELEVATING THE FAN EXPERIENCE

S O U L M AC H I N E S

it releases virtual oxytocin which starts to form bonding behaviours. There are infinite creative opportunities to use this digital brain to create different personalities with different human faces, suited to both the role they are given and the demographics of consumers that they are targeting.

Understandably, consumers may have trust issues when interacting with a human AI, many are already wary about the amount of data collected when interacting with voice AI such as Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home, so there are bound to be concerns about this new technology. However, Soul Machines uses edge computing so that no personal data is held. Unlike these sound-based devices, this technology is not constantly listening, it will only interact when you want to engage.

Greg Cross, Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer at Soul Machines sees the business application of this technology as, “the opportunity to humanise brands, the opportunity to democratise personal experience. It’s redefining the economics of personal customer experiences.” We are living in the experience economy – consumers want to experience the brands, products and services they love. What if we could make one-on-one communications scalable? Instead of being limited to only the wealthiest of customers, incredibly personalised experiences can be delivered to millions of people worldwide.

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The quest for personalised customer experiences has been front and centre of many a corporate business strategy for years. In recent times, however, ‘hyper-personalisation’ has

been further enabled by the increasingly rich data sets that companies hold on their consumers. Quite simply, the more companies know about you, the more they can provide you with the stuff you like.

As technology continues to leap forward, however, this personalisation will extend to interactions that exist outside of the digital sphere (think our apps, emails and social media). As technology develops (quite literally) a human face through AI powered holographic interfaces, the scope for interaction will go through the roof. Imagine having a personal relationship with your sporting hero? Or, imagine your own virtual personal assistant (think Siri or Alexa)evolving into a smart, holographic assistant that knows you so intimately that it can predict your shopping habits and diary needs without you having to give it commands.

In addition to increasing the scope for strong engagement with the things you love, this will also open opportunities for brands to advertise in way that feels authentic. One likely mechanism for this will involve recommendations and offers purchased as media and delivered through the watchful eye of your holographic personal assistant. This technology is unlikely to be fully operational for few a few more years, but the direction is clear to all.

Soul Machines is using deep science and technology; fusing AI, computational brain models and experiential learning in the quest to create AI that looks, thinks and behaves like humans.

Why would they want to do something like this? Interacting with other people is intuitive to humans, but what if it became easier for people and machines to interact with each other? As CEO and co-founder of Soul Machines, Mark Sagar, said, “Human co-operation is the most powerful force in human history. Human co-operation with intelligent machines will define the next era of history.” This interaction with intelligent machines will affect everything from education to healthcare, to marketing.

We’re moving into an era of dynamically generated content, where the content will be different and personalised every single time you interact with it. In

order to be able to bring this to life with visual AI, Soul Machines has developed a digital brain which generates all the behaviours and movements necessary to create a reaction in real time, just as humans do when we talk to each other. The digital brain is based on neuroscience, developmental psychology and cognitive science theories. It can feel in a digital way through virtual neuro-transmitters, virtual dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin. For example, if you give eye contact to the model,

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HUMAN AI AND THE PERSONALISATION OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

M A S T E RC A R D

Mastercard began its journey to develop a sonic identity two years ago. After listening to over 2,000 melodies, Mastercard found the right sonic signature that was pleasant, simple, neutral, memorable, hummable and versatile for global use in multiple scenarios. Mastercard has over 1.8 billion customers across 210 countries, so the sonic identity had to be consistent but flexible. Therefore, Mastercard adjusted and adapted its sound for 20 different geographies and customer interactions so that each rendition is personalised for each market and interaction. It will be used across all Mastercard advertisements, events, hold music, ringtones and payments. Every time a Mastercard customer makes a transaction, whether swiping their card in store or purchasing online, they will hear this 1.3-second-long sonic signature.

T H E V I E W F RO M F U S E

“Multi-sensory experiences” is a smart framing for what is typically known as a ‘customer journey’. This is not just

about being smart with your touchpoints (e.g. a brand’s sonic

assets featuring on customer service calls) but also playing a deeper part in customer lifestyles through understanding of their interests and passions.

The key to building brand saliency is to ensure strong mental availability is established between brand and consumer. Brands that achieve this find a way of playing a relevant role in the lives of their audiences by being omnipresent in a way which is discreet and authentic without appearing invasive. ‘Sensory’ is perhaps the new battleground in this regard.

Sonic branding has had a strong renaissance recently, particularly amongst financial services brands such as Mastercard and HSBC. The ability of sonic assets to build recognition and recall, as well as a sense of warmth (Intel’s bing bong sonic logo is the exemplar), is as vital a part of a brand’s armoury as its visual identity.

As technology opens new ways for brands to interact with consumers, expect to see an increased focused on sensory experiences.

Mastercard’s CMO, Raja Rajamannar, kicked off the session by hammering home a point that has been made across the industry: the world is completely changing. Digital technologies, speed of processing power, reduced costs and phenomenal user interfaces are changing everything about the world we live in on a daily basis. For Rajamannar, everything boils down to one main thing: “Consumers are gravitating towards immersive experiences and interactivity. Technology is completely changing how consumers are interacting with brands and therefore how brands must engage with consumers.”

Because of the fragmentation of the various media channels consumers can interact with, people’s attention spans are severely reduced. In any one day, consumers are bombarded with around 5,000 messages from brands, which has caused them to switch off from these messages completely. This is a huge problem for brands. The challenge is to cut through that clutter.

The first job is to simplify your brand and products. For Mastercard, this meant bringing over 20 separate brands all under one core presence. Mastercard then optimised its brand for use on digital screens, initially by increasing the brightness of the two coloured circles, before later removing the name Mastercard from the logo altogether.

Why do all of this? Firstly, because more than 80% of people recognise Mastercard’s brand without seeing the name. Secondly, the screens people are using are getting smaller and smaller. When a small screen is cluttered with multiple brand options, creating a bold visual creates a bigger impact.

After doing all the optimisation it could with its visual real estate, Mastercard needed to consider the latest in brand interactions: voice. As voice is increasingly becoming the primary way of interaction, an audio identity needed to be defined, called sonic branding.

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GIVING THEM SOMETHING THEY CAN FEEL: MULTISENSORY BRAND EXPERIENCE

F R A M E S T O R E

added use of headsets, every inch of that space will be able to be filled with interactive content.

As Mike McGee, Co-Founder and CCO of Framestore said, “The immersive world is a whole new area for telling stories and making engaging content, it just needs the creative thinking now of storytellers to come up with the right stories for the relevant platforms.”

T H E V I E W F RO M F U S E

We are just at the beginning of seeing what technology can do to heighten the things we love doing.

Advancements in AI, VR and AR, wearable computing, the Internet of Things (IoT) and other technologies are poised to radically remake society, changing the way we interact with the world around us and putting us on the verge of the most technologically disruptive era in human history.

In the short term, the era of immersive media will be driven by AR. VR headsets are still relatively expensive, require high-quality connectivity and are, for the most part, quite individual experiences. AR, however, can be used on standard mobile phones without the need to buy additional equipment.

But this is only a partially immersive experience. The real changes will follow, as the distinctions between AR and VR become insignificant. By 2025, new headsets and other devices will be able to display both experiences simultaneously in mixed reality (MR). The ability to blend natural and synthetic vision will take us beyond the “locked-in” state we currently experience through phones

or VR headsets and will make us rethink everything from the social norms of human interaction to how private and public spaces are designed and navigated.

These developments will transform the experience of the things we love doing in our spare time, such as sport, ushering in an era where spectators aren’t just passive observers, but feel part of the action, continuing to close the gap between themselves and their passions.

There is a huge demand from brands to connect to audiences in a much deeper and meaningful way. Today, immersive entertainment sits alongside film, television and advertising. When people are fully immersed in an experience, their reaction is visceral: people start sweating and physically shaking, they’re emotionally and physically connected to that experience.

Virtual Reality (VR) is still a nascent platform and we’re yet to discover the best way of telling stories through it to give people the best experiences. But it has already come so far. Where previously the technology sat in wired computers, now all the technology is embedded in a VR headset without the need of tracking cameras or devices in the room. This allows you to use it anywhere – at home, in the office or even in the park.

This means that all brands need now is a few headsets and a bit of open space to create activations and brand

experiences pretty much anywhere. For example, Westfield launched an experience where customers were able to immerse themselves in a Star Wars mission with their friends in the middle of a shopping trip. We’re going to see this more and more with the multi-use of spaces, from restaurants and dining experiences, to building shopping centres around immersive theme parks. To create an even more immersive experience, brands can create these activations in purpose-built spaces where you engage with 4D elements such as ice-cold wind and motion simulators and continuously introduce new elements that improve the experience.

In the future, not all immersive experiences will need to use headsets. Madison Square Garden is currently developing a structure called ‘The Sphere’ in Las Vegas that will transform immersive experiences. It has the capacity to hold 20,000 people and will integrate giant screens, moving stages and projection mapping. With the

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IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGY IS RESHAPING THE STORYTELLING EXPERIENCE

C O PA 9 0It’s promising to see brands making big commitments to grow the women’s game and Tarre pointed out that there are some real opportunities for brands looking to make an investment. “Football is still the biggest sport in the world and working to get women properly represented in football is one of the last opportunities to make real changes within the sport. It’s a great opportunity for brands to pioneer and be creative, there are so many firsts that can still be done in football. Finally, there’s the cause; the opportunity to join a movement and help a game that deserves to be recognised.”

T H E V I E W F RO M F U S E

Global viewing figures of this year’s Women’s World Cup point to a growing interest and appetite for the game (buoyed by significant free-to-air coverage) with global records being smashed on a weekly basis. Brazil v France attracted 45m viewers. Closer to home, the England vs USA semi final attracted a record breaking 11.7m viewers, becoming the most-watched television

programme of the year so far in the UK at the time of writing.

From the brand side, a few major players have taken the lion’s share of the World Cup cut through, helping to drive the women’s game deeper into culture.

Caps doffed to Nike for its powerful ad campaign that inspires us all to ‘Dream Further’, and for backing this up with tangible community-level interventions across the world. Also to Lucozade for its dynamic TV format ‘It’s Coming Home’ which evolves as the tournament does by baking in new content from the latest match, building its relevance and impact the longer England stays in the tournament.

Away from the World Cup, exciting new partnerships are forming, with Visa, Boots and Barclays, which have all penned multi-year deals that will last long after the World Cup dazzle has subsided, after committing to a seven-year deal with UEFA, a partnership with the UK and Ireland national teams, and sponsorship of the newly professional Women’s Super League respectively. It’s these long term, multi-year commitments that will have the greatest impact in attracting further mobilisation and sustained attention around female athletes and clubs.

Despite these landmark deals, the women’s game is still full of commercial opportunity. There are club sponsorships, athlete endorsements, league and cup partnerships which will afford brands the chance to be an integral part of the next exciting chapter. In 2021, the UK will host the UEFA Women’s Euros and with this next major milestone well within sight, we’re looking forward to seeing these opportunities realised.

Rebecca Smith, Executive Director of Women’s Game opened the session by saying, “We are at a tipping point when it comes to women’s football. I’ve heard everybody say that multiple times throughout my career, but I think that this is the moment where people can actually capitalise on it. The question is, off the back of the World Cup, what are we going to see?”

Nuria Tarre, CMO at City Football Group discussed the investment the club is making in the women’s game. Female players train on the same grounds as the men, they have combined social channels so Man City fans are exposed to both men and women’s games. It’s about being authentic but also giving visibility to the game. As Nuria explained, “We try to connect with a very young audience of a similar age to our players. We are embracing digital at Manchester City to capture moments that are authentic. We don’t pre-fabricate too many stories, we try to have a cheeky tone of voice. All of this connects fans with our

players and builds their personalities. They’re not actors, so we have to find the element of their personality that connects with an audience, while being natural.”

When it comes to media, even today, everything we see in football when we turn on the TV or read a newspaper is one-dimensional. Only men’s football and even then, only certain leagues within men’s football, are broadcast, when football is far more diverse than that and there are so many more amazing stories from interesting people that the media could be sharing. The reason women’s football is still held back in the media is because the people making the decisions about the game are also very one-dimensional: they’re mostly male and from similar backgrounds. As long as this continues, they will keep on choosing to broadcast or report on people who look like them, who they can relate to. We won’t begin to see a real change in the game until we see more diverse decision makers throughout all elements of the game.

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WHY CHANGING THE FACE OF FOOTBALL COULD CHANGE THE WORLD

VO DA F O N E & E S L

• Find the right role for your brand within eSports.eSports is about the milliseconds that decidewhether you win or you lose, meaning gamers needto rely on having the best network, this creates astrong role for Vodafone within that ecosystem.There must be a natural role for your brand to play

• As you would with advertising, pick the rightchannels. Make sure you fully understand howpeople are streaming, gaming, watching andengaging with all of these channels. You haveto talk to the platforms where this audience is

• Do not advertise! Remove this word from yourvocabulary when it comes to eSports. Instead,understand people’s behaviours, channels andmoments where they engage and ensure thatyou’re embedded in each of those moments

• Be different. ESL’s purpose is to give everyone a stage,while Vodafone does not want to leave anyone behind.These combined aims lent themselves well to inclusionas a way to differentiate Vodafone in the eSportsecosystem. Vodafone decided to promote a femalepresence within eSports by sponsoring a femaleteam and partnering with mainly female influencers

T H E V I E W F RO M F U S E

The difference between 12 months ago and where we find ourselves now is that brands, particularly non-endemics, are realising that the eSports ‘unreachables’ are actually quite the opposite of that, should you be willing to understand the space and learn how your brand can not just integrate but

support the ecosystem. Yes, 61% don’t watch TV regularly and most utilise ad blockers, but this should be considered an opportunity rather than a roadblock. Now we’re very much seeing the next logical shift from understanding what eSports is to understanding what it’s role is for a brand and what needs to be done to best engage with its fans in the most credible and authentic way. The eSports audience, once understood, can actually be one of the most rewarding for those who activate and communicate effectively. They are a very affluent group that is not only open to brand investment and engagement but also purchase. Compare this to a football for example, where sponsorship treads a fine line between complementing the fan experience and being obstructive to it.

Crucial for any non-endemic coming in fresh is to understand that eSports is not a one size fits all proposition, but rather a collection of many different disciplines and titles with differing fan bases. It’s a misleading comparison you often see, where eSports as a whole is shown alongside other, more traditional sports, like football, baseball etc. To compare things like audience and broadcast growth. It paints a nice picture but isn’t strictly accurate. eSports is a collective just like sport is and so it’s important to stack the likes of League of Legends or Counter Strike up against their traditional counterparts to achieve the most clarity. You then can begin to understand how the audiences differ and which is right for you, as a fan of one isn’t necessarily a fan of the other, just like a fan of football may not also like rugby.

To help further, be sure to identify rights holders that can help you to navigate the space as you refine your campaigns. Such partnerships, especially in the early days, cannot be undervalued.

eSports is not a new phenomenon, having started more than 20 years ago, but it has changed significantly since then to become a phenomenon that can pack out a 20,000-person arena. Fans are incredibly engaged and passionate about eSports, supporting a variety of different games, teams and players.

ESL is an esports organiser and production company that produces video game competitions worldwide. It’s CMO, Rodrigo Samwell, made an important distinction saying that, “eSports are a part of gaming, but not all gaming titles are a part of eSports.” For example, Candy Crush, while a popular game, is not yet an eSports competition. eSports games have a professional scene with an audience, they are a spectator sport. Brands need to understand that when we say an eSports audience, it does not mean one single audience. Each game has its own tribe and the communities are similar in some ways but different in many others. Part of being able to address

these audiences is to think about the different ways you can reach them through storytelling and content.

In general, eSports’ fandom is around 81% male, though this number evens out more when it comes to mobile gaming. They are affluent with high purchase power, 38% buy goods from brands associated with eSports and they are usually early adopters of new technologies. In terms of viewing habits, 61% don’t watch TV on a weekly basis and 70% spend more time engaging with eSports over traditional sports. Importantly, this audience is one of the leading audiences in knowing the latest technology to block advertising online, so brands wanting to engage with this audience must focus on storytelling in order to resonate with them.

During the session, Vodafone’s Global Director of Brand and Media, Sara Martins de Oliviera, was very open about the mistakes the brand has made along the way with eSports and the key learnings they have taken from this:

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T H A N K YO U F O R R E A D I N G.For further information, please contact Anna.Watkins@fuseint.com